Introduction
Situated in central Germany, Halberstadt is home to around 40,000 people. The town’s biggest claim to fame is being where the very first pipe organ was installed in 1361. It is also where John Cage’s ‘As Slow As Possible’ is currently being performed at the monastery of St. Burchardi; billed as the world’s longest composition, it is set to run for 639 years (Cage is best known for 4’33”, four and a half minutes of absolute silence). Given that it began playing in September 2001 the piece has got a fair bit to go yet.Avant-garde music aside, visitors to Halberstadt can choose between the Medieval cathedral and its treasure which has been preserved since the Middle Ages, the Spiegelsberge park and zoo or sightseeing around the old town, which is filled with baroque architecture. The theatre stages ballets, operas and plays, and there’s a seven-screen cinema too.
